Phonetic Alphabet Phonetic Alphabet In a military situation

Phonetic Alphabet

Phonetic Alphabet In a military situation, a message that isn’t understood correctly can have critical consequences, therefore the military relies on the phonetic alphabet to clarify communication. The phonetic alphabet is a list of words used to identify letters in a message transmitted by radio or telephone. For example, the word “Army” would be “Alfa Romero Mike Yankee” when spelled in the phonetic alphabet.

Phonetic Alphabet The use of the phonetic alphabet helps to prevent confusion between similar sounding letters, such as “m” and “n”, and to clarity communications that may be garbled during transmission. The current phonetic alphabet was adopted in 1957. The following slides contain the letters of the alphabet along with the phonetic alphabet and the correct pronunciation.

“A” Alfa AL FAH 1913 1927 1938 WWII Able Affirmative Afirm

“B” Bravo BRAH VOH 1913 1927 1938 WWII Boy Baker

“C” Charlie CHAR LEE 1913 1927 1938 WWII Cast Charlie

“D” Delta DELL TAH 1913 1927 1938 WWII Dog Dog

“E” Echo ECK OH 1913 1927 1938 WWII Easy

“F” Foxtrot FOKS TROT 1913 1927 1938 WWII Fox Fox

“G” Golf GOLF 1913 1927 1938 WWII George

“H” Hotel HOH TELL 1913 1927 1938 WWII Have Hypo How

“I” India IN DEE AH 1913 1927 1938 WWII Item Interrogatory Int

“J” Juliett JEW LEE ETT 1913 1927 1938 WWII Jig Jig

“K” Kilo KEY LOW 1913 1927 1938 WWII King

“L” Lima LEE MAH 1913 1927 1938 WWII Love

“M” Mike MIKE 1913 1927 1938 WWII Mike

“N” November NO VEM BER 1913 1927 1938 WWII Nan Negative Negat

“O” Oscar OSS CAH 1913 1927 1938 WWII Oboe Option

“P” Papa PAH 1913 1927 1938 WWII Pup Preparatory Prep

“Q” Quebec KEH BECK 1913 1927 1938 WWII Quack Queen

“R” Romeo ROW ME OH 1913 1927 1938 WWII Rush Roger

“S” Sierra SEE AIR RAH 1913 1927 1938 WWII Sail Sugar

“T” Tango TANG GO 1913 1927 1938 WWII Tare

“U” Uniform YOU NEE FORM 1913 1927 1938 WWII Unit Uncle

“V” Victor VIK TAH 1913 1927 1938 WWII Vice Victor

“W” Whiskey WISS KEY 1913 1927 1938 WWII Watch William

“X” X-ray ECKS RAY 1913 1927 1938 WWII X-ray

“Y” Yankee YANG KEY 1913 1927 1938 WWII Yoke

“Z” Zulu ZOO LOO 1913 1927 1938 WWII Zed Zed Zebra

Phonetic Numbers There is a similar military phonetic system for numbers:

“ 0” Zeero

“ 3” Tree

“ 4” Fower

“ 5” Fife

“ 6” Siks

“ 7” Seven

“ 9” Niner